Mr. Marcucci, who was the chief public safety officer for the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) in Ontario, last Friday received a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal for his public service.

“The philosophy I’ve always had in the safety business is that I liken it to the Wizard of Oz,” said the married, 55-year-old father of two. “You need three things to be successful in the safety business: you need a heart, you need to be able to appeal to people and have passion for what you are doing and you need a brain.

“You need to understand what the safety issues are and what you need to do to go about solving safety problems. You need courage because there’s lots of people who don’t agree with you and are comfortable with the status quo,” said the Woodbridge resident.

“And then the other thing you need, is you need people, you need friends to help you go to the Emerald City because you can’t do it alone.”

Electrical safety has been Mr. Marcucci’s passion for more than three decades.

He served as the vice-chairperson of the Canadian Advisory Committee for Electrical Safety (CACES) and is a member of the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council.

He also was vice-chairperson of the National Public Safety advisory committee and the Canadian Safety Association’s Strategic Committee on Requirements for Electrical Safety.

And he was a founding member of the Electrical Safety Foundation International Canada chapter and was made chairperson of the organization’s board.

Mr. Marcucci might as well be known as ‘Mr. Safety’, given the dedication, time and energy he has devoted to protecting others throughout his life.

His work in the safety business allowed him to be part of a team that identified four primary safety issues in Ontario and across Canada, including:

- Workers and homeowners making contact with power lines;

- Electricians on the job getting electrocuted;

- Deaths in fires due to the misuse of electric stoves and;

- Electrical fires in older homes.

“These were the key safety issues we were focused on. We would promote awareness and education, undertake training, influence codes and standards, work closely with the Canadian Standards Association to prevent issues from happening in the first place, and do inspection and enforcement where necessary,” Mr. Marcucci said.

His efforts over the years along with the work of many of his colleagues has paid off with lives saved.

“Over a 20-year period, we have seen a drop from 1.5 fatalities per million people to half that per million people. But zero is the goal,” he said.

The man who started out as an engineer with Ontario Hydro after earning his Master’s degree in engineering at U of T, said “the discipline that I brought to the safety business was No. 1 and understanding what types of incidents and accidents were happening in Ontario and Canada.

“We published the first-ever electrical safety report that looked at the type of electrical accidents that happened in Ontario and it’s now in its 10th year. It’s probably the most definitive document on electrical safety in North America.”